There is a great need for a system that facilitates identification of lost individuals or individuals in need of emergency assistance, particularly children, and the notification of the lost individual""s parent/guardian/family members/medical professionals and/or local law enforcement personnel, as necessary. Almost a million persons per year are reported missing to the police and/or the FBI, and the FBI estimates that 85-90% of these persons are juveniles. And, these numbers have been continuously increasing for the past 13 years. Another difficulty with current means used to locate lost individuals is that ⅔ of the land area of the United States is not covered by 911 emergency service. Recovery of lost individuals is very difficult in those areas. Moreover, recovery of lost individuals is further complicated when families cannot supply investigators with up to date, detailed personal information concerning the lost individual. Authorities claim that when they are provided with proper, up-to-date personal information, such as a recent full face photograph and vital statistics, their chances of recovering a lost individual increase significantly.
There is also a need for a system which facilitates assistance to individuals who have a medical emergency, or who are injured, panicked and/or frightened. Again, the 911 service coverage area is incomplete. Moreover, even if an individual is within the 911 service area, it is difficult to get accurate information from an individual when that individual is in an emergency situation or is otherwise panicked or frightened. If medical information was already on file concerning an individual before an emergency situation arises, medical assistance could be more quickly provided and could be rendered more effectively.
Moreover, millions of dollars worth of personal property are stolen or lost every year. These losses serve to increase insurance costs nationwide, among other things. The invention facilitates the location and recovery of personal property, thereby decreasing such insurance claims.
It is accordingly, an object of the present invention to provide a system and method which facilitates the identification and location of a lost individual.
It is an additional object of the present invention to provide a system and method for the identification and location of a lost individual which provides law enforcement authorities with easy access to a recent full face photograph and vital statistics of the lost individuals to facilitate the location process.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a system and method for the identification and location of a individual which includes a method to cross-notify the parents/guardians/family members of the lost individual.
It is an additional object of the present invention to provide a method and system of facilitating the rendering of medical assistance in emergency situations.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a system and method which facilitates the identification and location of lost personal property.
Additional objects and advantages of the invention will be set forth in part in the description which follows, and in part will be obvious from the description or may be learned by practice of the invention. The objects and advantages of the invention may be realized and attained by means of the instrumentalities and combinations pointed out in the appended claims.
To achieve the objects and in accordance with the purposes of the invention, as embodied and broadly described herein, the method for locating a lost person of the invention comprises the steps of: (1) producing one or more personal identification cards having preassigned unique identifying indicia thereon, the preassigned unique identifying indicia including a unique personal identification number, a full face photograph of the person, and toll-free telephone number of a central station; (2) dispensing the personal identification card to the person and/or to the person""s parent(s)/guardian(s)/family member(s) if desired; (3) reporting certain vital statistics and personal information concerning the person to whom the personal identification card was dispensed to the central station; (4) storing the reported certain vital statistics and personal information concerning the person and the full face photograph of the person in a database; (5) reading and calling the toll-free telephone number when the person becomes lost; (6) placing a call to the central station via the toll-free telephone number; (7) reporting the personal identification number to the operator at the central station; (8) utilizing a caller identification type service to obtain the phone number relating to the particular phone from which the call is placed to the central station; (9) correlating the obtained phone number to a particular geographic location from which the call is placed to the central station; (10) utilizing the personal identification number to facilitate retrieval of the certain vital statistics and personal information concerning the person and the full face photograph of the person from the database; (11) placing a call from the central station to the law enforcement authorities and providing the certain vital statistics and person information concerning the person to the law enforcement officials; (12) placing a call from the central station to the parent(s)/guardian(s)/family member(s) of the person informing the parent(s) guardian(s)/family member(s) that the person is lost; and (13) placing a call from the central station to medical personnel if the certain vital statistics and personal information concerning the person indicate that the person has a medical condition(s) which may necessitate medical attention.
The method for locating lost personal property utilizes similar steps as the afore-described method with the exception of notification of medical personnel.
The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification, illustrate one embodiment of the invention and, together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the invention.